Family Portraits
by breeeliss
Summary: Tenzin was the last one to find out about Meelo's artistic prowess. Though admittedly, something about the boy's enthusiasm for sketching everything he saw was rather amusing. Pro-bending Season 2 submission.


**Title:** Family Portraits

 **Words:** 2977

 **Summary:** Tenzin was the last one to find out about Meelo's artistic prowess. Though admittedly, something about the boy's enthusiasm for sketching everything he saw was rather amusing. Pro-bending Season 2 submission.

 **a/n:** Round 3 submission for the Pro-Bending Circuit Season 2. No real plot. Just a light-hearted slice of life deal with Tenzin's family. Enjoy :)

 **Task:** Pick three colors and utilize one theme from each color: _purple (imagination), pink (girly), white (perfect)_

 **Prompts:** (dialogue) "I didn't know you were an artist"; (character) Meelo; (quote) What makes things memorable is that they are meaningful, significant, colorful. -Joshua Foer

 **Bonus Prompts:** Include the element Fire in the story; include a rabaroo in the story

 **OOO**

 _Family Portraits_

 **OOO**

Tenzin was the last one to find out about Meelo's artistic prowess.

It wasn't necessarily that he wasn't paying attention to his son, but Meelo wasn't a bragger. Rather, he liked to showcase just how talented he was in controlled intervals — sort of like always pulling tricks out his hat in order to impress their family with surprising displays of aptitude. Tenzin had a feeling that Meelo loved absorbing the awe and shock. It was more dramatic that way, and left room for a lot of preening. Clever boy.

Tenzin had decided to give Pema a break from the children and let her rest for the morning and the afternoon one weekend. The Republic City Zoo had just opened up and he thought it would be nice to take the children to visit it since Ikki and Meelo had been desperate to go there ever since its grand opening.

It was a charming place — still new and still small, but the habitats were extensive, the environment was welcoming, and it seemed to be attracting a high volume of families and children which Tenzin found absolutely lovely. Near the entrance were a lot of small exhibits that seemed to be tailored especially for children around the age of five or so.

But the age disparity didn't seem to bother Ikki and Meelo, and the two of them immediately rushed over to a group of small children who were sat in front of a rabaroo exhibit and given the task of sketching the enthusiastic animals hopping across the open fields. They took to the task with an alarming amount of ferocity, each of them hunching over their sketch pads with intense concentration, and letting their pencils fly across the page.

It was serious enough that Jinora actually crouched down to look over their shoulders, and Tenzin felt obligated to come and watch the display as well. He blinked in shock when he stared over Meelo's shoulder.

"Huh," Tenzin hummed in thought. "I didn't know you were an artist."

Meelo looked up from his work and shrugged casually, his nose up on the air. "You always did underestimate my genius."

Ikki rolled her eyes. "Show off," she grumbled. Tenzin looked down at her own work and didn't have the heart to tell her that her rabaroo looked more like a sack of flour with lemur ears attached to it, to be quite honest. Then again, it seemed like she was fully aware of her lack of talent with drawing and decided to just doodle in the corners of her page instead.

But Rohan walked over to stand in front of Meelo just as he was shading in the ears of the rabaroo he had nearly perfectly rendered on the page. The four year old chewed on his lip and smiled brightly when he saw the drawing. " _Wow!_ " he exclaimed in excitement. "It looks _perfect!"_

Jinora nodded. "I have to admit," she commented. "That's a spot on picture. Look, he even has all the whiskers."

"Really?" Ikki said, leaning over. She blinked and also found herself grinning. "You're right, Rohan. It does look perfect. Where'd you learn to do that?"

Meelo shrugged and signed his name on the bottom of the page with a flourish, as if he were a renowned artist signing his work. "Natural talent, dear ladies," he nodded sagely.

Tenzin rolled his eyes at Meelo's theatrics, but the rest of the day went off without much incident. It wasn't until they got back to the temple that Rohan ran excitedly back to Pema, clutching Meelo's sketch in his hands and going on and on about how amazing his brother was at drawing.

Pema smiled fondly and crouched down at Rohan's level. "That certainly is remarkable," she said. "Maybe, if you ask nicely, Meelo can draw something for you."

It was a simple motherly suggestion, but Meelo seemed to take it seriously.

The next morning, Rohan was sat in a chair, kicking his legs in the air while Meelo held his pencil out in front of him with squinted eyes and a tongue poking out the corner of his mouth. "Alright, Rohan. It's important that you stay perfectly still."

Rohan nodded and bounced in his chair excitedly. "Perfectly still," he echoed.

"Exactly," Meelo grinned.

Tenzin couldn't help but watch the process. Usually, these sorts of things required lessons from someone more capable, or at the very least extensive amounts of practice. But Tenzin had never seen Meelo take to drawing as more than a passing hobby. Still, skill was skill, and Tenzin was more than impressed. It took a little over a half an hour before Meelo held the sketch up in the air in victory and stood on his chair, striking a valiant pose. "It's finished!"

Rohan immediately raced out of his chair. "Lemme see, lemme see, lemme see!"

Meelo handed off the paper proudly as Rohan clutched the paper, screamed in delight, and hugged it to his torso.

Tenzin couldn't help but ask. "Meelo, be honest. How did you get so good at this?"

He shrugged in response and twirled his pencil in between his fingers. "I dunno actually. Just kinda comes to me. It's not that hard once I get started. You have to _feel_ it," Meelo emphasized. He turned to his father earnestly. "You know what I mean?"

Honestly, Tenzin didn't. But if Meelo understood that was all that mattered. Still, he was rather curious to see how far this could go.

"You know," Tenzin told him, setting a hand on his shoulder. "Rabaroos and little boys are one thing. But do you think you can draw other people?"

Meelo crossed his arms and looked down at the ground thoughtfully as if he were seriously considering this as an option. But Tenzin knew his son well, and if there was one thing that Meelo couldn't turn down, it was a proper challenge. It didn't take long before he Airbended his drawing supplies towards him, ran out of the room, and started shouting, "Ikki! Jinora! Living room! Front and center! It's an emergency!"

Tenzin wasn't quite sure why he was encouraging this. Perhaps the sudden calm in Republic City was too much of a shock after all of the excitement with the new spirit portal a few months ago. For someone who so loved the peace and quiet that Air Temple Island offered him, he wondered if he actually missed waking up in the morning and having something new to think about about and do. Not that he was wishing for chaos again. Certainly not.

But something about Meelo's enthusiasm about sketching everything he could was rather amusing to him — and it was nice to see what that boy would come up with next.

After lunch, Meelo made Jinora sit in the courtyard as still as she could, allowing her to read a book while she posed only because Jinora never moved when she was engrossed in a particularly good book. Meelo had drawn an audience with Ikki peeking over Meelo's shoulder and Rohan sitting in Meelo's lap and watching with rapt attention. Tenzin had passed them while on the way to oversee some of the newer Airbenders go through their training, but he couldn't help but stop and observe.

Ikki was frowning. "Why are you making Jinora look so girly?" She pointed at the paper. "Her eyelashes aren't _that_ long!"

"Because Jinora _is_ a girl, dumb dumb," Meelo answered back. "Girls are supposed to look girly. Besides, you're not supposed to interrupt an artist when he's in the zone."

Rohan turned to Ikki. "The _zone_ , Ikki!" He brought a finger up to his lips and shushed his older sister before turning back to watch his brother work.

Ikki rolled her eyes, but decided to drop the subject in favor of saying, "I _do_ like how you've colored her hair though. Makes it look like it's glowing."

Meelo smiled, as if glad that she picked up on the exact effect he wanted to portray. Sure enough, Meelo had a whole pile of colored pencils laid out next to him and he was slowly adding colors to be shaded into the rough sketch he had made of his sister. He crouched down next to his son and nodded. It really did look like Jinora's hair was glowing. It was remarkable to see all the detail that was being brought out now that Meelo had access to the colors. The light pink across Jinora's cheeks, the swirlings reds and oranges of her clothes, the three different shades of blue used to color her arrow tattoos…

"That's very beautiful," Tenzin muttered quietly. He meant it. He didn't think he'd ever seen Jinora look quite so ethereal on paper. It almost felt like Meelo was doing more than just copying what he was seeing and it was truly remarkable to watch.

By the end of the week, Meelo had made colorful portraits of every member of their family much to everyone's delight. He managed to draw a portrait of Ikki Airbending in the courtyard and did some remarkable coloring in order to show the air swirling around her in a vortex of vibrancy and vitality. He managed to draw Pema sitting next to a fountain, sewing one of the holes in Rohan's pants, but it must have been nearing sunset when he drew it because the portrait seemed to highlight warm colors of the sun that were lighting up the soft smile Pema always wore she she sewed.

Korra had even come to the island to stay for a couple of days and was in the courtyard cycling through some Firebending early one morning when Meelo brought out his sketching materials. Korra found the sight amusing, not totally aware of the project that Meelo had set out on, but she humored him when he asked her to continue bending and to pretend that he wasn't even there. But it only took him an hour to make a rather startling portrait of Korra, mid-kick, with colorful flames swirling around her.

She was gushing over it when he gave it to her, and couldn't help but show it off to some of the other Airbenders on the island. "I mean, look at the imagination this kid has," Korra said excitedly. "Just look at how he drew the flames. There are so many colors. How does he even think of that?"

Much to Tenzin's amusement, Meelo must have snuck into Tenzin's study without being seen and sketched him sitting over his desk, probably reading and signing something important that needed his attention before the next council meeting. It was late when Tenzin was working, because the moon was shining in swirling silvers and blues on his back whilst the lamp on his desk was lighting his face with warm, cozy oranges and yellows, highlighting the severe look of concentration that must have been on his face whilst he was working.

Pema found some old wooden frames and put each drawing safely inside of them so that she could hang them around the temple for everyone else to see. It wasn't until he saw them all lined up next to each other — a testament to his son's progress — that he realized how right Korra was. This wasn't just an impeccable ability to draw things as Meelo saw them. This was pure unadulterated imagination swathed across the page. Sometimes, on his way to his study, Tenzin couldn't help but pause and tilt his head in wonderment as he looked on at the work for a small while. It's as if everytime he looked, there was an extra little detail that he noticed in one of the works — an extra surprise that Meelo had included that he hadn't noticed before.

It was pleasantly touching.

Perhaps, Meelo was right. Maybe Tenzin had underestimated him a tad. Or, rather, he never expected Meelo to be able to convey so much with such little effort.

One evening, when Tenzin was making sure that all of the sky bison were accounted for, he found Meelo sitting out in the courtyard again. It was rather late and the lights of Republic City were already illuminating the sky, resembling a beacon flickering brilliantly in the distance. His father's statue was already swathed in the flood lights at the base of the structure, and it shone brilliantly next to the city. Tenzin saw Meelo sitting in the courtyard by himself, sketching something with an old piece of charcoal and occasionally looking up at Aang's statue.

He quietly walked up to Meelo and sat next to him, tucking his hands into his robes and staring out at the statue as well. "It's late, Meelo," Tenzin reminded his son. "Your mother is going to be putting dinner out soon. You should get inside."

Meelo didn't look up, but he nodded absently. "I'm almost done."

Tenzin glanced over at his son. "Do you mind if I see?"

Meelo wrinkled his nose and tilted his sketch to the side as if to look at it from another angle. "I guess. But it's not coming out right…"

"What are you drawing?" Tenzin asked as he gently pulled down Meelo's arm so that he could see the sketch properly. Meelo brushed aside some of the charcoal dust and turned it to his father. Tenzin's breath caught in his throat for just a moment before he leaned in, looking positively enraptured.

It was his father's statue, but not quite. It was clear that Meelo was basing the post and outline on the statue before them, but Meelo had added a whimsical expression to his father's young face, added flowing robes that were catching in the wind, and even managed to add in a few patches of color here and there. The blues and purples of the wind, the reds, greens, and yellows of the leaves caught in it, and the absolute delight and free spirited vivaciousness that Tenzin knew his father always held dear to him. There was no way Meelo could have possibly drawn something like that just by staring at a statue, and Tenzin couldn't help but gawk.

"It's hard to draw people when they're not standing in front of you," Meelo grumbled. "I mean, technically Grandpa Aang is _right there_ , but it's not the same." He sighed and fell backwards onto the ground, staring up at the sky. "I think I'm gonna start over tomorrow. Too tired to think…"

Tenzin chuckled. "Drawing takes a lot out of you, huh?"

"It's like I've lost ten years," Meelo muttered in awe. "I've seen the secrets of the world. They've spoken. Told me things I've never known…"

Tenzin furrowed his brows. "What are you even on about?"

Meelo shrugged. "I dunno. It was a cool answer though, right?"

He laughed and picked up the drawing still lying in Meelo's lap. "Yes, it certainly was." He hummed in thought as he stared at the charcoal sketch. "I know you're not entirely happy about it," Tenzin began, "but this is a wonderful likeness of Aang. He used to smile just like this all the time."

"Yeah," Meelo sighed, "but it doesn't look _exactly_ like him. Not like the others do."

Tenzin shrugged. "I suppose so. But no one ever said these sorts of things need to be perfect. What makes things memorable is that they are meaningful, significant, colorful." He brushed away the hair that was falling on Meelo's forehead and handed the drawing back to him. "I rather like what you've done with this."

Meelo huffed and hugged the sketch to his stomach and turned his eyes towards his father. "Think so?"

"Of course," Tenzin replied immediately. "Everyone sees that statue exactly the same. But you've turned into something alive and unique. That's no small task."

Meelo rounded his mouth into an 'o' shape. "So like… 'Grandpa Aang Statue' a la Meelo."

Tenzin laughed. "Yes, I suppose so."

It seemed that the explanation was acceptable because Meelo nodded and smiled into the sky. "That's pretty cool, I guess."

Tenzin grinned and ran his fingers over the charcoal colors and ruffled Meelo's hair. "You know, we're going to visit Grandma Katara next week. I think she'd really appreciate this."

Meelo smiled. "She would, wouldn't she?" He sat up suddenly, his eyes alight with inspiration. "I bet I could draw her too. That'd be _super_ cool, wouldn't it?"

Tenzin smiled down at his son fondly. For some reason, he had the impression that Meelo was going to be taking this pretty far. He wondered if Korra's friends would be willing to come down for a visit. He was sure Meelo would enjoy drawing them. He chuckled to himself at the thought of asking Lin to allow Meelo to sit in the station and draw her while she was at work. He wasn't sure how kindly she'd take to that, but Meelo would certainly take it as quite the accomplishment if he could convince the Chief to agree to something so sentimental. Perhaps a group portrait was in order…

With a tired grunt, Tenzin stood to his feet and pulled Meelo up with him. "Come on now, clean up. We're going to be late for dinner."

"Okay, okay," Meelo groaned in exaggeration. He dropped all of his charcoal pieces in the small tin he kept them in. He paused, stared at them strangely, and then looked up at Tenzin. "You know...maybe these would look better with paints...give it that extra _oomph!_ Don't you think?"

Tenzin rolled his eyes and pushed Meelo along in front of him before he got himself into another tangent and made Pema scold them for being late. "We'll go into the city and get you some paints tomorrow," Tenzin promised. "Perhaps a few easels if you finish everything that's on your plate."


End file.
